Being a homeschooled child is one of those things were people look at you like you have three heads. Several different thoughts and questions about homeschooling start to spill out and most of them are completely untrue. I've had discussions with several people about these common misconception about homeschoolers, and it amazes me how uneducated people are about homeschooling. Though, I have to admit that homeschooling has gained some popularity in the most recent years. But people still believe so many of the myths about homeschooling.
Homeschooled children don't socialize.
This is an extremely common misconception and is typically the first thing that people ask me once they find out that I was homeschooled. How did you socialize? There are many different ways to socialize with people outside of school. There are many different options when it comes to socializing outside of your nuclear family, it may require more effort when you are homeschooled. But it is definitely possible. We were apart of a homeschool group all the way up until I went to public school, my senior year of high school. As a homeschool group, we went out and had field trips together, went to zoos, museums, and all other types of educational things that you'd expect from another school function. We also had church, extracurricular activities, as well as meeting other kids through mutual friends.
Being homeschooled makes it harder to get into college.
This is an extremely incorrect assumption. Colleges actually prefer homeschooled teens, because we've been taught how to be self-sufficient when it comes to school. We don't need anyone to guide us through our schoolwork. We get assigned our work and have to form the self-discipline to sit there and complete our schoolwork as well as learning how to figure out explanations without someone guiding us through it. There are also scholarships out there specifically for homeschooled students.
Homeschooling families are extremely weird.
Now, I'm not going to lie and say that no homeschooling families are weird. Because there are some pretty weird ones out there, but that also just how the world works. There are weird people out there who go to public or private schools. My first ever year of not being homeschooled, my senior year of high school, I had people tell me time and time again that they didn't really believe that I had been homeschooled for eleven years because I was so well spoken. That I was social and not awkward at all. I always thought it was so funny how amazed people got about the fact that I was homeschooled and I was just as well adjusted as anyone else was. If not more so than other children my age.
There are many other misconceptions about homeschooling and homeschoolers, but these are the top three things that I encountered regularly as a homeschooled student. Some people think that homeschooling is all fun and games and being in your pajamas all day. That is honestly up to the parents, but I was always up at seven, got dressed, did my morning chores, ate, and then started school by eight. No doing homework in our pajamas for us (except for rare occasions, which was always amazing).